Pages

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Wreath Storage…Using a Coat Rack

Hi everyone! Christmas decorations are down, but I'm still organizing and putting the basement back together. The basement totally turns into a dumping ground when I'm decorating for the holidays. Furniture and regular home decor gets moved to the basement to make room for Christmas. Then the reverse happens when it's time to take everything down and get the house back together again.

While getting the basement and the Christmas storage area back together, I've taken some pictures along the way of some of the ideas I use. Today, I wanted to share some organizing tips for storing artificial wreaths.

We spend valuable money on Christmas evergreen decorations, even when they are on sale, so storing them properly is key to making them last for years.

Come on in and see a few ideas to store your wreaths and evergreens…

I have lots of artificial garlands and wreaths. I put up decorations right after Thanksgiving and they are up until the weekend after New Year's Day, so they are up for a while. Fresh evergreen just wouldn't last for me.

Some of the types I have are berry wreaths and evergreen.

Evergreen is easy to store, because you can squish it and then refresh it again when you pull it out the next year. The different kinds of berry wreaths or more delicate decorations have to be stored differently.

I store most all decorations in plastic tubs.

The 30 gallon size works great for wreaths. Buying plastic tubs is an investment, but well worth it. Just buy a couple each year to add to your collection.

I bought larger sizes to store evergreen garland and Christmas trees that no longer fit in those ridiculous tiny boxes they originally come in.

That's another whole post in itself, trying to squeeze the tree, that you just puffed up to three times it's factory size, back into a box the is 10 inches wide.

The big tubs that I have are 50 gallons.

The 50 gallon is perfect for miscellaneous garlands and sprays.

The wreaths go in the 30 gallon though.

Just line them standing up, one by one. I can fit 8-10 wreaths in one box.

Berry wreath or some greens that won't do well in a box are hung up so they aren't damaged.

Where to hang them? On an old coat rack of course!!

I also added one of those bars that hangs down to give you another rod to hang on.

For the wreath, I added a long zip tie to hang it from the hanger. Most hooks on the backs of wreaths are too short.

The longer zip tie just gives you some space from the neck of the coat hanger and the rod you are hanging it on.

Now take a plastic garbage bag and poke a hole in the bottom.

Slip the hook of the hanger through the hole.

and then cover the wreath with the bag to protect it from dust and being stored all year.

Now just hang it on the coat rack for easy storage.

Here's the rack partially done, so you can see some of the wreaths not covered yet.

Here it is all done. I don't tie the bags at the bottom to keep air flowing in and out. We run a dehumidifier in the summer and the furnace keeps it dry in the winter… that keeps the climate normal in the basement.

The coat rack is also a great place to store all the over-the-door wreath hooks. Keeps them all in one place so I can find them.

I hope this idea was helpful. You don't have to go out and buy a coat rack, I just happened to have an old one. You can hang the wreaths in a closet, on a rod hanging from the ceiling in your basement or even a nail from the ceiling, if your basement is unfinished like mine.

Either way, if you store your decorations properly, you will keep them forever.

Reading this post reminds me of the very creative people who work all year long on the New York City window displays for the Christmas Holidays. YOU would be perfect for this job !! Your organization is top notch and you are always thinking outside of the box for solutions and creativity ;)Great post ;)Rose

The first thing that goes through my head is the creepiness of basements.I KNOW I must watch too many horror movies. Thankfully, I live in Oklahoma and no one really has basements (water table). Your basement looks all bright and safe, though. It must be that all those Christmas decorations have enough Christmas magic to keep horror movie-stars at bay. Attics, barns, and woods....that is another creepy for another time...

Love it! We do something very similar in our attic. (so wish we had a basement) My husband attached a 2x4 to an existing beam and we just slide our outdoor wreaths onto it. With other holiday wreaths, I'll put them into large trash bags and hang them from a nail which is nailed into the many beams in the attic. :)

I thought about hanging my wreaths but felt I'd need cloth bags to cover them. Then wondered where I'd find the right size. Then here you have solved my problem. Never thought of using trash bags. Don't have basement, but have to use garage so have standing cloths rack that I plan to hang the wreaths. Some I hang on the garage walls, High up so can store things under them.Thanks again.

Hi Karen,I must say, you are pretty amazing! You have a wonderfully creative mind. Please keep the ideas coming. As you can see from your post comments, we love all of your brilliant thoughts. And we love you as well! :)

I use Ziploc XXL bags so I can see through them and see what is in the bag. This is especially helpful for the wreaths I've made of food (Peeps, candy corn) because they seal all the way and nothing is getting in or out.

LinkWithin

About Me

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Karen. I am a wife to a wonderful man for over 28 years and a mom to two beautiful daughters. The girls have graduated from college and are starting wonderful lives of their own. We miss having them home, but they still keep us busy! I am a dental hygienist by day and in my free time I love to blog, sew, quilt, craft, rearrange furniture, shop in consignment stores and drink tea! Thanks for joining me on this blogging journey...I have sew many things to share!